Using Groupware in Quality Management Programs

Quality management programs and ISO 9000 certification efforts accomplished by organisations are typically based on group work and generate large amounts of written documentation. Groupware technology can improve group work and process documentation, but few organisations seem to be benefiting from its use. This paper tries to fill this gap by suggesting possible applications of some groupware instances namely electronic-mail, computer conferencing, workflow control and group decision support systems to each of the several steps of a typical quality management approach called PQMP. An illustration is provided for a company manufacturing truck parts. GROUPWARE SYSTEM FUNCTIONS There are several taxonomies for groupware. One of the most commonly accepted is the application-level taxonomy, based on the main function the system provides to its users (Wilson, 1991; Ellis, Gibbs and Rein, 1991; McQueen, 1993; Kock, 1994). Some of the most representative categories of the application-level taxonomy follow, along with a brief discussion on experiences with their utilisation: Error! Bookmark not defined.• Electronic-mail. Electronic-mail is by far the most successful and the most used groupware instance (Easterbrook et al.; 1993), and was one of the first computer systems to be developed with the aim of supporting communication among people. It is easy to use due to its strong analogy to the ordinary postal system. Several kinds of improvements have been reported from the use of electronic-mail ranging from reduction of time on processes which involve intensive communication to reduction of costs with common mail. For example, it is claimed to have saved IBM from sending 7.5 million envelopes by airmail in 1987 (Toffler, 1991). Error! Bookmark not defined.• Computer conferencing. The main function of computer conferencing is to allow people to exchange electronic messages about a given topic in the context of a group discussion. It is different from electronic-mail to the extent that messages are presented to the user in a contextually organised, topic structured manner, and access to the messages can be restricted to only members of